Christian von Sikorski assumed the professorship in Communication Studies with a focus on Media Effects Research as of April 1, 2025. His research and teaching focus lies in the field of media effects and political communication. In particular, his work addresses topics such as political polarization, misinformation and disinformation, political influencers, artificial intelligence in political communication, as well as political scandals and terrorism. His academic work has received numerous awards, including from the German Communication Association (DGPuK) and the International Communication Association (ICA).

Christian von Sikorski studied in Cologne, Germany. In 2014, he earned his doctorate as a scholarship holder in an interdisciplinary graduate program at the German Sport University Cologne (in cooperation with the University of Cologne). In his dissertation, he examined the effects of news framing on attitudes and communication behavior in interactive contexts. During his doctoral studies, he held visiting scholar positions at New York University (2012) and the School of Journalism and Communication at the Chinese University of Hong Kong (2013).

From 2015 to 2019, Christian von Sikorski worked as a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Vienna, Austria (in the research group of Prof. Jörg Matthes). From 2017 to 2018, he held a temporary full professorship in media psychology at what is now the Rhineland-Palatinate Technical University Kaiserslautern-Landau (RPTU) (formerly the University of Koblenz-Landau) for three semesters. From 2019 to 2025, he held an assistant professorship in political psychology at the Institute for Communication Psychology and Media Education at RPTU.

We warmly welcome Christian von Sikorski to the Institute and are delighted that he will enrich our research and teaching.